Chapter Text
...I was looking for the answers in somebody else, but…
Will closes his eyes.
Aware that a demogorgon is lunged at Lucas, his friend of years.
Aware that Robin is left defenseless and with nothing left to do.
Aware that his very best friend in the whole world, Mike, is being attacked by this wet, disgusting monster, one that isn’t meant for this world.
Aware of everything.
...I had all the answers.
He reaches down to a part of himself he didn’t even know existed, a part of himself that had felt weighed by Vecna’s grasp ever since that cold November night four years ago. He’s met with a blinding pressure, but there’s nothing else left to do.
And he pushes. And keeps pushing, through white-hot blinding pain.
Until…
Something snaps. Will feels a sensation in his chest, that he isn’t sure is fear, or adrenaline, or…
Power.
I just had to stop being so goddamn scared.
Mike watches the demogorgon, the one who had stolen his sister and other innocent children, now coming for him.
But no, this wasn’t to take him. This was for the kill.
There was no time. There was nothing left to do.
Mike braces himself, back to the metallic tank in the distraught military base, arms flung in front of his face, waiting for the impact of sheer pain to get to him…
But it never comes.
He slowly lowers his arms and opens his eyes to the demogorgon completely taut in air, as if it were frozen. As if it was being held by something. Or someone…
That’s when he sees him. Will.
His arm outstretched, palm facing up, eyes completely white. He was doing this. He just saved Mike’s life.
But Will sees them all. He roots his feet in the ground, pushing deeper, the pain behind his eyes just an afterthought.
Just as the second demogorgon swings at Lucas in the tunnel, his other arm shoots out in his direction. And the third at Robin in the field, and Will snaps his head up. Three demogorgons, all suspended in the air, all in three completely different locations.
Lucas and Robin both stare at the demogorgon, dumbfounded, wondering how their lives were just spared from demise.
Will has them all. Now he just has to finish.
He raises his arms, face twisting in concentration—he didn’t even know he knew how to do this—and the demogorgons follow. Their bodies are limp, completely under Will’s control.
Mike, Robin, and Lucas watch as Will pulls his arms in, snapping the demogorgons bones in ways they should never go, in true Vecna fashion. Then suddenly, they fall to the ground. Lifeless.
Will falls to his knees, fists clenched. His heart is racing so fast, he can hear his pulse in his ears. He catches his breath and comes back to his body. He looks up, slowly, and wipes a stream of blood trickling down from his nose.
…Holy shit. Did I just–
He had let go, his eyes fading back to hazel.
His head pounded, limbs ached from being in Vecna’s trance. He had felt every gunshot, every flame, every mechanism the soldiers had used against him, and that doesn’t even account for whatever he just did.
As his vision came back to focus, he glanced around for just a second. The air was choked with the smell of ozone and burnt hair—the aftermath of the demogorgons’ and soldiers’ war. The silence wasn't peaceful; it was ringing, a high-pitched whine in his ears that drowned out the crackle of the dying fires. The ground beneath his knees was hot, radiating heat through his jeans.
But he still felt something there. A presence inside him, much larger than the usual cold ache. Like someone had just ripped a hole inside his chest. Like–
A hand grabs Will’s shoulder. He looks up to see his mom, his rock, his biggest fan, with a look in her eyes that he had never seen before.
Fear. She was afraid of him. The realization hits Will like a physical blow.
Immediately, Will tries to stand, but his legs don’t cooperate. Joyce meets him on the ground, pulling him into a tight hug.
“How… how did you—”
“He’s a sorcerer! A real-life, honest-to-god sorcerer!”
Will’s heart hammers against his ribs. He turns his head, eyes locking onto Mike, who is sliding onto his knees beside him in the dirt.
Mike looks like he’s just seen god. His face is split in a wide, manic grin, eyes darting between the twisted, broken heaps of the demogorgons and Will’s face. There is no fear in him. Only a wild, consuming worship.
“Did you see that?” Mike demands, grabbing Will’s shoulders. His grip is tight, grounding, shaking him slightly. “You just… you stopped them. All three of them. You didn’t even touch them, Will! You just looked at them and snap.”
Will lets out a breathy, incredulous laugh, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. His palm didn't just feel steady; it felt electric. A low hum vibrated beneath his skin, like a live wire trapped in his veins, buzzing with a potential that scared him more than the monsters ever did. “I… I just did what I had to do.”
“Mike, he’s bleeding,” Joyce’s voice cuts through the celebration, sharp with panic. She’s hovering, hands fluttering over Will’s face, cupping his cheek. “Will, honey, look at me. Are you okay? That was… that was a lot.”
“I’m fine, Mom,” Will says, and his voice is surprisingly steady. He reaches up, taking her trembling hand in his and giving it a reassuring squeeze. He feels lighter, somehow. Unburdened. “Really. I’m okay. I feel… good.”
And he does. He feels powerful.
“Good? You’re incredible!” Mike is still rambling, practically vibrating with energy. “You’re like… you’re magic, Will. You’re actually magic. You’re a wizard. You’re Will the Wise. You just saved our lives!”
Thwup-thwup-thwup-thwup.
The sudden, rhythmic beating of rotor blades vibrates through the concrete floor beneath them. The dust around them begins to swirl violently, kicking up into a stinging haze as searchlights cut through the gloom of the Mac-Z.
Joyce’s head snaps up toward the ceiling. “Reinforcements,” she hisses, her maternal instincts shifting from care to survival. “The military. We have to go. Now.”
She grabs Will’s left arm. “Mike, help him up! We need to move!”
“I got it,” Will says, brimming with confidence.
He plants his boots on the ground and pushes himself up fast—too fast.
The moment he straightens his legs, the rush of adrenaline drains out of his head. The room spins violently. His knees buckle, his vision swimming with black spots. He tips forward, losing his balance.
“Whoa, easy!” Mike is there instantly, his arm shooting out to catch Will around the chest before he can hit the floor. He hauls him back upright, pulling Will’s arm over his shoulder to take the weight. “I got you. I got you.”
Will blinks rapidly, waiting for the world to stop tilting. He grips Mike’s shirt, grateful for the support.
But as the dizziness fades, something else takes its place.
Deep in his chest, beneath the exhaustion, something shifts. A sudden, cold weight settles in the hollow behind his ribs. It feels foreign. Heavy. It felt less like a weight and more like an anchor. Cold, rusted iron dragging him down through the floorboards, tethering him to something dark and pulsing miles beneath the earth.
Will pauses, his breath hitching in his throat. His hand flies to his chest, fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt.
“Will?” Mike asks, his voice dropping, the excitement vanishing into concern as he tightens his grip on Will’s waist. “You okay?”
Will shakes his head, pushing the sensation away. It’s nothing. He just held three monsters in the air with his mind and snapped their necks; of course he feels weird.
“Yeah,” Will lies, exhaling sharply. He looks at Mike, offering him a brave, determined smile, though he leans heavily into Mike’s side. “Just stood up too fast. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Supported by Mike, Will takes the first step, and together with Joyce, they move toward the exit, leaving the ruins of the lab and the closing gate behind them.
Max watches through binoculars as one, two, eleven more kids pour into the Creel house. Holly, who’s being incredibly brave about all this, twirls one of the girls around into a hug.
The air was light and hollow, the sun shone perfectly, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Max smells the sweet scent of forested trees around her, a smell she had almost grown blind to after all this time. The blue on the Creel house was untouched, lawn mowed and trees cut evenly. It was all perfect–-too perfect.
Max has been stuck here, in this mindscape, for eighteen whole months. Which she thought would be forever, until Mike and Nancy’s little sister stumbled into Vecna’s mindscape. The two had a plan, where Holly would pretend nothing was wrong until Max could find their escape.
The plan was seamless, and the best shot the two had at escaping. Max hearts warms at the thought of finally seeing Lucas again, and—
“Max!”
She turns to find Holly running toward her, almost tripping over her poofy blue dress, where Max immediately shushes as she bends down to her height. “What are you doing? Did you forget the entire plan?”
“No, no, Max. Something’s up. With Henry.” Holly explains, panic in her eyes.
Max furrows her brow.
“He was… talking to himself. As if he was trying to convince someone of something.”
Max has no idea what Vecna could possibly be up to. “Okay, I promise you Holly, that is nowhere near the most disturbing thing he’s ever done. Did anyone see you leave?”
Holly shakes her head, and pulls Max in closer by her draping robe. “In the room, Henry told us that we were going to shape a whole new world. We were sat at the dining table. I didn’t know what was about to happen.”
“But then all of a sudden, he looked like he was in pain, and his nose started bleeding. He got up all at once, told us to get ready. I don’t know if he got a bad headache or something but… Look, what I’m saying is this is our chance. He’s distracted. We have to go. Now.”
Max has no choice but to believe her. Holly was already back now, and she knows all too well that Wheelers are stubbornly and annoyingly spontaneous, but they’re usually right.
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
The tires of the stolen truck on the gray, ashy ground of the Upside Down make a very small noise that almost sounds like rain. The air tasted metallic, coating their tongues in a film of ash that felt like swallowing dust. The silence wasn't empty; it was heavy, pressing against their eardrums like being underwater.
El stares out the window, quiet as to not disturb Kali’s trance.
After they found her sister, they had carefully untangled her from the mess of wires and blood bags and helped her escape with them. To buy more time, Kali is now creating an illusion that she’s still there in the lab.
Kali, if El’s being honest, looks terrible. She’s much thinner and paler than she was when she was a part of a gang in Chicago three years ago. But she was alive. And now, she was sitting in the van, blindfold over her eyes, blood running from one nostril as she cast the illusion.
El is dealing with a feeling of guilt. She hadn’t seen her sister in three whole years, and sure, they lived in different cities, but El had never checked in.
When you have the ability to put a blindfold on and see what anyone in the world could possibly be doing if you have so much as a pen that belongs to them, there aren’t many excuses you could come up with for not keeping in touch.
Finally, Kali gasps, and pulls down her blindfold. “I… lost it,” she says, tiredness in her voice. “We’re too far.”
El turns around quickly, reaching for Kali’s hand.
“It’s okay,” Hopper responds. “We’re far enough away they’re not gonna catch up with us now. That’s a hell of a trick you pulled.”
Kali lets out a small smile towards Hopper, then looks out the window.
“You okay?” El asks, worry in her eyes.
“Yeah, it’s just… this is the first time I’ve been outside of the lab in god knows how long.”
“I’m so sorry…” El responds immediately.
“For what?”
“I should’ve come looking for you! This whole time, we were doing all of these crawls, and you were right there the whole time.”
“You couldn’t have known, Jane.” Kali looks at her with something El can’t name in her eyes. Something that quickly turns to fear. Fear of what comes next, of what pain she’ll have to endure.
El, unsure of what else to say other than sorry, I messed up, I’m a terrible sister, just nods and holds Kali’s hand from the front seat.
She catches a glimpse of the bomb vest sitting in the back seat, opposite to Kali. This makes El glare at Hopper.
She was infuriated at him. How was he just going to go die, just like that? Without even saying a proper goodbye? He and El both know, if that had been Henry on the other side of that door instead of Kali, Hopper would not be alive right now.
“How long is it gonna take to find the exit?” Holly asks, still new to the inter-dimensional gist of things.
“Let’s hope not long,” Max answers pessimistically.
“Right, it’s just you had your friend Kate to guide you, and–”
Max interrupts her. “All I’ve been doing for the past two years is moving through this maze. I’m all the guide that we need.”
She locks eyes with Holly, explaining the plan. “Once we find his first memory of you, we follow the memory trail to the night he captured you. And if I’m right, the exit to the real world will be there.”
“And then we escape Camazotz.” Holly replies, determination in her face.
“Then we escape Camazotz.”
The two continue on to where Holly remembers first waking up.
“This is it. This is where I woke up.” They stand in a grass patch of a wheat field, surrounded by sun and sky.
“Good,” Max replies. “So, look for anything that’s out of place. It’ll be hidden, hard to find, but…”
Holly stops and points a finger. “There.”
In the middle of the field, there’s a white door, obviously sitting there with no real purpose.
“Oh… or not hard.” Max says, underwhelmed, then continues towards it cautiously.
When Max opens the door, there’s a loud screech that makes Holly jump.
“It’s just a memory,” she says to Holly, reassuring her. “Whatever’s down there, it can’t hurt you.”
The two step through the floating door, and emerge out the other side not in the field, but in a new memory: The Wheeler house basement. As they cautiously and slowly walk downstairs, they realize the screaming was coming from a TV. A scary movie. The door slams shut behind them.
They watch old Holly—memory Holly—scream along with her friend as a jumpscare happens in the movie.
“I don't understand. This was Halloween. I hadn’t met Henry yet.” Holly says, confused.
“Just because you haven’t seen him, doesn’t mean he wasn’t here.” Max replies. At that beat, the curtains flies open, revealing Henry standing outside the Wheeler window, watching Holly. The two memory-girls scream more at the TV, as a flash of thunder shakes the house.
Max sees Holly startled again. “Hey, remember…”
“Just a memory.”
“Mm-hmm,” Max looks at her with a calming look in her eyes before turning toward the window again. She walks over, flipping the bird as she lowers the blinds. A reaction justified by years of torture and the death of her brother, Billy.
“There should be another memory close by,” Max says, looking around the room. She turns towards Holly. “Do you know when you first actually met Henry?”
Holly gets startled by the TV again. After all, she’s just a twelve year old girl, and now she has to help fight a monster. Max knows the feeling. The loss of innocence occurring in such a short period of time.
Max walks to Holly and leans down. She stares at the floor, mouth open like she wants to say something. “Holly, I need you to focus, okay? When did you first meet him?”
Holly looks up. “After school, I think?”
“Okay, where at school exactly?”
“The library.” Holly says definitively.
“Library.” Max echoes. What’s in a library? Books. Max looks around and finds a bookshelf, one that looks like something is behind it where nothing would usually be. She’s been to the Wheeler basement enough times to know this.
Max pulls out a desk chair and begins pushing the books backward, and they clatter to the floor instead of hitting the wall. A new memory has revealed itself. Memory-Holly is now sitting at the table of the library, reading a book–A Wrinkle in Time.
“Bingo,” Max says.
“I absolutely adore that book,” Henry says ominously. Memory-Holly’s eyes dart up in the direction of the voice.
Henry emerges in a long, tall brown suit and hat, which he removes as he introduces himself to Holly. He looks normal, nice even. This was the first time he had come to Holly, and any child would have grown to trust him.
The adrenaline that had surged through Will like a live wire begins to dull, leaving behind a hollow ache in his bones and a fog in his brain. The tunnels of the Mac-Z are damp and dimly lit, the sounds of the military helicopters muffled by the layers of concrete above them.
Will’s arm is still draped over Mike’s shoulders. He stares at the ground, watching his own boots drag against the concrete, trying to piece the last two minutes together.
It feels like a fever dream. He remembers the anger. The pressure. The pain. He remembers the snap of power. He remembers the demogorgons falling.
But there’s a gap. A dark, cold blindspot in his memory that makes his stomach turn.
I stopped them, Will thinks, his brow furrowing as he struggles to focus through the exhaustion. I stopped the monsters. I won.
But if he won, why does he feel that sinking, heavy dread in the pit of his stomach? Why does he feel lighter, but in the worst way possible—like something vital has been stolen?
Then, it hits him.
The kids.
The vision comes back in a violent flash. Not the monsters in the room, but the other connection. The one he had pushed to the back of his mind while he fought. He feels the echo of Vecna’s mind. Vecna hadn’t just been fighting Will; he had been busy. He had been collecting.
The abyss had become a creation of Vecna’s impure and evil intentions. Just a barren land of vast desert before, he had shaped it into one where its sole use was to hone his abilities, strengthen his violence. All this to end the world which caused him immense suffering.
A familiar figure is formed on the gray sand, a black, huge monstrosity spanning hundreds of feet over the pale-yellow sky.
The mind flayer.
And in its core, Vecna’s physical form retreated, healing, strengthening, building.
The demodogs rip tears in the space-time wall with their disgusting, sharp claws. Each demodog has a child, unconscious, young, easily shaped, just as Will had been four years ago.
The demogorgons bring each child to a different pillar inside the Mind Flayer’s core. In unison, gray, sick flesh moves around each child, tethering them there, and a vine snaps down from the ceiling. It attaches to each of their mouths, pumping them with matter that should never enter a human’s body.
At the very first pillar is Holly Wheeler. Mike and Nancy’s baby sister, who was so bravely fighting this monster she had no idea of just 48 hours ago.
Vecna has his army. It’s only a matter of time.
Will gasps, a sharp, strangled sound, and stops dead in his tracks. He stumbles, nearly taking Mike down with him. He isn’t sure what the sensation in his chest is: a tug? All he knows is he’s never
felt it before. And that can’t be good.
“Will? You okay?” Mike asks, tightening his grip instantly.
“No,” Will breathes, his eyes darting around the tunnel, panic rising in his chest. He claws at his own shirt. “No, no, no…”
“What is it?” Joyce is there instantly, grabbing his free hand. “Will, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“I didn’t get them,” Will chokes out, looking at his mom with wide, terrified eyes. “Mom, I didn’t get them. I was… I was so focused on the demogorgons, I didn’t… I didn’t see what he was doing until it was too late.”
“Yeah, the Demogorgons took Derek, Mary..." Mike says, trying to ground him. "...but we don't know if the others--"
“No," Will says. "He has them all. I saw. Holly, all of them. I felt him take them. He finished it.”
"Holly?" The panic rises in Mike's voice.
Will just looks at him, panic in his eyes. The silence in the tunnel is deafening.
Will’s breathing turns ragged, hyperventilating as the weight of the failure crashes down on him. “I failed. I let him win.”
He rambles on. “And– I saw… the Mind Flayer? Almost like it and Vecna were the same entity. Like Vecna’s controlling it. I guess, the hive mind connection, that makes sense, but that really just confirmed it’s been him all along, and—”
“Hey! Look at me!” Joyce grabs his face between her hands, forcing him to look at her. Her voice is fierce, cutting through his panic. “You listen to me. You saved us. Do you understand? If you hadn’t done what you did back there, we would be dead. Me, Mike, Lucas, Robin… we’d be gone.”
“She’s right,” Mike insists, shifting so he’s right in Will’s eyeline. “Will, you held off three demogorgons with your mind. You didn’t fail. You bought us a chance. We’re still here because of you.” His gut fills with a distinct worry. He’d never seen Will lose control and panic like that.
Will had always been the calm one to Mike’s frantic outbursts about whatever thing was on his mind; whether that was a comic series that didn’t quite end the way he wanted, or the way El treated him during their breakup all those months ago. They had to relearn to work as a team, and Mike feels bad that Will ever had to listen to those rants.
Will looks at them—really looks at them. He sees the dirt on Mike’s face, the fear in his mom’s eyes that she’s trying to hide. They are alive. He feels the cold stone of Vecna's presence in his chest, mocking him, but Mike’s grip on his shoulder is warm and real.
He swallows hard, forcing the panic back down. He can’t fall apart now. Not when they’re still in danger.
“Okay,” Will breathes out, shaky but determined. He nods, wiping his eyes. “Okay.”
He pulls away from Mike slightly, testing his weight. “I can walk. We have to keep moving.”
“You sure?” Mike asks.
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
They pick up the pace, fueled by a new, desperate urgency.
“Lucas?” Mike calls out, as they find him slumped against the tunnel wall, blood peeking through the top of his shirt.
The group huddles around him as he looks up. “Hey guys.”
“Oh, shit.”
“It’s just a scratch,” Lucas croaks. In reality, they all know it’s deeper than that.
Joyce calls for the first aid kit as Lucas lifts his shirt. The group groans in response to the sight of blood.
No- no… that’s not too bad!” Will attempts to lift the situation.
“Yeah,” Mike chirps in. “It looks like just the right amount for a couple of badass scars.”
Joyce puts pressure over the wound as Lucas grimaces. “I’m sorry I couldn't protect the kids,” he whispers.
“You did everything you could. You fought, you risked your life! …Nice swing, by the way.”
Lucas’s eyes widen at Will. “You saw?”
Will nods. “He more than just saw,” Mike boasts.
“All right, my dears. Playtime’s over!” the school teacher shouts across the playground. Max and Holly have reached a new memory, the final time Holly had seen Mr. Whatsit before the demogorgon had attacked.
As the rest of the kids run inside, memory-Holly looks to the fence of the playground, looking like she recognizes someone. Max and Holly watch as she walks toward Henry, who stands smugly with one hand waving and the other in his pocket, and speaks to him, though in reality she was speaking to thin air.
“Are you positive nothing else happened before the Demo showed up?” Max asks Holly. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of indication that a disgusting monster was in the location of the next memory.
“Yes,” Holly replies, her voice stern.
“Walk me through everything again from the beginning.”
“I’ve told you already.”
“Tell me again.”
Holly furrows her brow and just looks at Max with an annoyed look on her face. She finally gives in. “Mary and I were at the merry-go-round. Derek was a dipshit to us, like usual, and then Henry called me over there.” She points in the other direction.
“He told me he’d protect me from the monsters, and I didn’t see him again until the field. I just got in trouble for having an imaginary friend, and mom got all weird, and she got into a big fight with dad…”
Holly eyes linger on the merry-go-round. She stops rambling and walks towards it, a focused look on her face.
“What is it?” Max asks, following behind her.
“That’s wrong. It should be yellow.” Holly stares at the middle piece of the merry-go-round, which is a colorless gray shade.
Holly steps onto the merry-go-round and clumsily pulls out the fire poker she’s kept tucked in her cross-body bag’s strap. She flashes an uncomfortable look on her face before swinging the poker into the gray piece, shattering it. Underneath, Holly’s most traumatic memory of her short twelve years lives. The demogorgon.
The moment comes back to Holly like a wave–her clinging onto her bedpost while the demogorgon gripped her leg, her mom holding her under the bathtub water, the way Karen Wheeler fought so courageously, yet was so easily taken down by the demogorgon’s disgusting claws.
“Holly.” Max brought her back to her body. “You all right?”
“I don't know,” Holly replied. She was terrified. “I feel…”
“Scared?” Max wishes she could let Holly into her mind, to see how it feels terrifying in the moment, but the moments will pass. “We’re close to the final memory. You might start to… feel things, some things that you felt that night. I know I did.”
Holly stares down into the hole of her broken home.
“But it’s just like an echo,” Max reassures her. “It’s a good sign. It means you’re almost home.”
They stare together for a moment, then Max breaks the silence. “Come on, follow me.” Max jumps down, gravity pulling to the side.
Holly stays back for a moment. “You said… I’m almost home. But… you’re coming too, right?”
“Mmm… no, I’m gonna stick around here, actually,” Max says sarcastically. “Of course, are you kidding?” Max extends her hand. “C’mon.”
The tires of the stolen military van screech to a stop. A bright red flash of lightning makes Kali jolt slightly. The three step out of the car, and notice Steve’s beloved BMW lodged in the side of the wall.
“It’s a miracle they made it back in one piece,” Hopper says, grabbing his backpack from the back seat. “Wish I could say the same thing about Harrington’s precious beamer.”
“This is what you’re gonna do? Act like nothing happened? Make jokes?” El confronted him.
Hopper sighs, eyes not quite meeting El’s. He starts toward the church without answering her.
El follows closely behind, continuing, “You find Vecna, you come home. That was always the plan. But that was never real, was it?” Kali is following them now, too.
“Of course it was real.” Hopper says, his tone low, not turning to look at El behind him.
“You’re lying! Just like how you lied about my training. You couldn’t have me on your crawls because your plan was to kill Vecna alone and die.” El grabs Hopper’s shoulder, stopping him, finally turning his body to face her.
“Hey. Listen to me. What happened today was different,” Hopper explains, his tone rising now. “The kryptonite, you couldn’t fight. I didn’t have a choice!”
“And the bomb?”
Hopper eyes widen, then dart away. “The bomb was…” he starts back toward the church, turning away from El. “...it was a failsafe.”
El forces herself back to face Hopper, infuriated. “A failsafe no one knew about!”
Hopper finally stops and looks El in the eyes.
“I saw it in your eyes tonight. I saw. You were planning to die.” El’s eyes begin to water at the thought of her own father, who had protected her endlessly for years, limp and lifeless on the ground.
“And you always were.”
Hopper sighs and closes his eyes. He would do anything to protect El, and now El knows, that involves dying for her, too.
The heavy tone is violently cut through by Kali. “Hey!”
The two, startled, turn to look at her.
“Your friends are supposed to be here, yeah?”
“...So, Demos floating, limbs snapping, dying… that was all you?”
Lucas has managed to find his footing to escape, using the walls of the tunnels for support. The group continue down, looking for the ladder which they had entered earlier in the night. Before the kids were taken, before Will had pushed back, finally, before all of this chaos unraveled.
“..Holy shit. Holy shit! You know what this means, right? He’s like Will the Wise, but for real!” Lucas hollers at the realization. And he definitely has a point; Will having powers changes the game.
“Not… really,” Will responds. He feels himself in his posture–unusually straight, and his mind feels foggy. I mean, no one knows the side effects of siphoning off someone’s powers, right?
“He’s more like a sorcerer than a wizard,” Mike adds.
“Okay, yeah, but… you get what I’m saying, right? We have our second El.”
“I’m not like a second El. I don’t have powers,” Will explains. “I’m siphoning, I’m stealing Vecna’s. And to do that, I have to be near the hive mind, and Vecna’s not coming back.”
Will notices the name Vecna linger on his tongue. The sensation reminds him of when he completely possessed his body three years ago, even though he couldn’t fully remember it (probably one of those things he just blocked out), Vecna wouldn’t let him communicate with Jonathan, or Mike, or even his own mother.
“But, his demos might?” Lucas inquires.
“I don’t think so. They came for the kids, and he’s got them all. He has his vessels.”
Everyone turns to look at Will, who’s stopped in his tracks. “Vessels?”
Right then, Will feels something shift inside of him. Like he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to. Like explaining Vecna’s plan to the enemy was wrong, even though Vecna himself was the real enemy.
He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He furrowed his brow, trying to play it off. “I’ll- I’ll explain when we’re out of here,” he said as he sped ahead of the others.
Mike and Lucas share a look of confusion. I mean, Will’s probably right. This will probably make a lot more sense once everyone is well rested.
“I just hope your theory’s wrong,” Mike says, a concerned look on his face.
“What theory?” Joyce questions, her eyes intense. Anything that has to do with Will, she has to know. It’s the kind of thing only the mother of a missing kid would understand.
“November 6th,” Lucas states plainly. “The day all this started… is the day it ends.”
The four finally reach the tunnel exit, and Will is the first one out.
Max and Holly continue into the house, watching the events unfold in the kitchen.
The demogorgon scratches Karen across the throat, and blood scatters across memory-Holly’s face. She’s in shock, unsure of what to do, and the demogorgon takes her.
“...I just stood there,” Holly says. “Why didn’t I fight? Why didn’t I help her?” She turns to Max, her voice nearly breaking.
“That was old Holly,” Max says. “You would now.”
Tears begin to collect in Holly’s eyes. They move forward, leaving Karen in the memory lying there alone. They walk to the front door, where they see it: the end of the mindscape. The realm is no longer within a memory, but rather what connects Vecna’s mind to the real world. The escape of Camazotz.
“What is that?” Holly asks, her voice impossibly small.
“Our exit,” Max replies.
“It doesn’t look like an exit,” Holly is almost laughing out of fear. The realm is a mess of pointy rocks, vines, and endless red. She turns to Max. “You sure you’re not a monster?”
“Pretty sure,” Max says.
Right as the two step forward, a door shoots in front of them, blocking the way out. The lights begin to flicker. It’s him.
“I told you, Holly.” Vecna’s body is distorting the same way it was back at the Creel house. His head turns in an unnatural, sickening way. Holly stares in terror, confusion. “Never go into the woods.”
Max grabs Holly’s hand, darting into the other room toward a window. She tries to open it, but it won’t budge. “He’s coming!” Holly yells.
“Holly! Give me that!” Max says, taking the fire poker from her hands. Max shatters the window, clearing the glass as fast as she can. Her heart hammers against her ribs.
Holly is yelling, sweating, melting, but then turns her head to Henry in his true Vecna form. The way the vines collect on his body, the flesh, his deep, grating voice, causes Holly to freeze in horror.
Max barely has time to react before Vecna’s arm shoots out around her neck, picking her up off the floor. No, no, not again. This can’t be happening again. The fire poker clatters to the floor.
Holly can’t do anything but close her eyes. She thinks about Mike. When back at the school, he gave her the D&D figure. Holly the Heroic. Whenever she’s scared she can become her.
She reaches for the figure around her neck, grounding herself in the feeling of the plastic.
That was the old Holly. Holly the Heroic is brave. Holly the Heroic can fight monsters.
There’s no time for thinking. Holly picks up the fire poker, winds it up, closes her eyes and swings it with all her tiny might at Vecna’s arm. The impact causes him to seize back, and he releases Max. She hits the ground hard, grasping at her throat and catching her breath,
Holly might be new to the whole supernatural thing, but she’s a Wheeler. She's not stupid. She knows that if Vecna wanted her dead, he would’ve done it already. Holly throws herself in front of Max, facing Vecna now.
“You leave her alone! If you want her, you’re gonna have to kill me too!” Holly yells, her eyes wide, almost manic.
Max scrambles up toward the window. Vecna makes a move toward her, but hesitates as Holly anticipates his next move.
“Holly!” Max shouts as she jumps through. She can’t leave her here alone.
“Max, run! He isn’t going to kill me. He needs me!” She doesn’t take her eyes off Vecna. He tilts his head in that way he only does when he’s surprised, outsmarted.
Max feels a huge pit in her stomach. She just left a twelve year old to fend for herself against Vecna. But she knew Holly was right. He wasn’t going to kill her, at least not yet. And if Max didn’t run now, she would never see the real light of day again.
So she ran.
She thought of Lucas, of El, of all her friends, tears streaming down her face, and she didn’t stop running. Suddenly, the image of her in her hospital bed emerged. She ran, and ran, until…
The harsh beep of the heart monitor made a sharp pain twang in Max’s head. The lights were bright, too bright. But then she realized where she was.
She made it. She escaped Camazotz.
She tried to get up, to stand, but she couldn’t move.
A nurse walks by her room in the hallway, and does a double take when she sees Max’s eyes open slightly, her lips parting.
Max’s head was fuzzy, blurry. “...Lucas… where’s Lucas…” she asked. She couldn’t quite make out the nurse’s response, but she felt something she hadn't felt in so long: safety.
Upon entering the church, there’s an eerie feeling–-something wrong in what’s supposed to be such a sacred place. Black vines wrap around each of the pews, and perhaps worst of all, there’s no sign of the others. They had gone off somewhere unannounced, right after Hopper and El told them to stay put for their rescue.
“You’ve gotta be shitting me,” Hopper says out of frustration. He turns out of the building, grasping his walkie and violently pressing the buttons. “Dustin, do you copy?”
Kali sits in one of the pews, shivering. El follows her, looking at her like she may collapse at any moment. She looks small against the backdrop of the red lightning.
“Kali,” El whispers, leaning closer. “How did Kay find you? And why? Did she mistake you for Vecna?”
Kali lets out a dry, humorless laugh that sounds more like a sob. “Kay didn’t find me, Jane. Not really.” She stares at the ground, at the dead vines curling over her boots. “Six months ago, I didn’t even know her name. I thought we were safe in Chicago.”
El watches a tear cut through the grime on Kali’s cheek.
“He found us,” Kali says, her voice trembling. “Vecna. He didn’t send soldiers. He came into my mind. He… he made me watch as he tore them apart. Axel, Dottie… my family.” She looks up at El, her eyes wide with a haunting, frantic terror. “He killed them all to isolate me. To leave me with nothing.”
El gasps softly, reaching out to take Kali’s hand again. “I am so sorry.”
“He wanted me to join him,” Kali continues, her words spilling out faster now. “He showed me a world where we didn’t have to hide. Where we were…rulers. Like gods, almost. He used every insecurity, every fear I’ve ever had… but I said no. I could never join in on his twisted games. Not after everything.”
She shudders violently. “So he showed me something else. Something… worse than death. A darkness so absolute it felt like it was eating my soul–I can’t even describe it to you. And then… he told me to go to Dr. Kay.”
“What? You surrendered?” El asks, confused.
“I didn’t want to,” Kali whispers, clutching El’s hand so hard it hurts. “My mind was screaming run, but my body… it just walked. Like I was a pawn on a chessboard. He moved me there. That wasn’t me in my own body.”
El knows Kali isn’t weak. This is Vecna brute-forcing himself onto Kali. She’s powerless to him.
Hopper steps back out onto the porch, looking grim. “Place is empty. Dust and cobwebs. If they were here, they’ve been gone a while.”
Kali doesn't look at Hopper. She’s locked on El. “Dr. Kay… she wasn’t just draining me, Jane. She was using me.”
“Using you for what?” Hopper asks, walking down the steps, sensing the shift in the air.
“To restart the program,” Kali says, her voice hollow.
“She was injecting pregnant women with my blood. I saw. I tried escaping one night, but… I wish I never did.”
She locks her eyes to El with her usual intensity that she carries in her eyes, but it’s different, mixed with terror. They’re trying to recreate Henry. Recreate us.” She looks at El, tears spilling over.
“But they all died. The mothers… the babies… their bodies rejected it. My blood wasn’t strong enough.”
El feels a cold chill that has nothing to do with the Upside Down air. Mama.
“And I think… maybe… that’s why he let you find me,” Kali whispers, squeezing El’s hand. “He didn't want me. He was just bait. He needs your blood, Jane. You’re the only one strong enough to finish what he started.”
El’s stomach drops. This whole thing could be a trap? Could Vecna be watching her through Kali, just as he did to Will? She has so many questions, questions that will undoubtedly be answered sooner rather than later.
Before El can respond, a low, grinding sound vibrates through the soles of their shoes.
SHHH-THWUCK.
The ground beneath the church lurches.
“What was that?” El breathes.
“Look,” Kali points a trembling finger past the church. “The wall. It’s moving.”
In the WSQK, Will lies on the couch, separate from the others. He insisted he was exhausted from the day’s events, because why wouldn't he be?
But the truth is, he was more than exhausted. The small, cold hole he felt earlier in the night had grown to his whole body, especially his head, where he felt a constant pressure. He wanted to get up, tell everyone something was wrong, that he was terrified. But he couldn’t move, as if he was planted on the sofa.
He can hear the others in the room, the commotion caused by the news of Max awakening from her trance. But he doesn’t feel excited or happy. Why doesn’t he feel happy? His friend was asleep for nearly two years, and he couldn't even feel happy for her?
And that’s when he heard him.
“William.”
Vecna.
His heart spiked at the sound of his voice. His head shot up, darted around the room, but he was nowhere to be found.
“Don’t go looking around. I am within you. I have always been within you.”
His breath came in shallow and ragged. He tries to snap out of this, to stop him, but he’s met with a blinding pain as a stream of blood falls from his nose.
He’s forced to just lay there and listen. Alone. With no way of stopping it.